Getting round to cause of pup’s major bowel trouble

IT HAPPENED so soon after they had been fed that her owner presumed it was something to do with the way they all guzzled their food down.

Up until now, things had been going swimmingly.

The bitch had given birth to eight spaniel puppies without a hitch.

She had been an attentive mother, settling to allow them to suckle and cleaning them one by one afterwards.

They had grown in line with expectations and now, at five weeks of age, they fed occasionally from their mum but more often from plates of mushy food that tended to get trampled about more than actually consumed.

And then, shortly after the last feeding frenzy of the day, when they normally curled up into one glorious mass of satisfied, sleeping, snoring, snuffling puppies, one wee girl separated herself from the bunch and crept painfully around, tummy tucked up and emitting a sorry groan.

When the situation failed to improve after an hour, her owner realised it was more than just overindulgence and so sought veterinary advice. It was just as well she did. With a subnormal temperature, pale gums and an aching abdomen, the pup really looked to be in trouble. And she was.

Ultrasound examination revealed she was suffering from an intestinal intussusception, a condition where part of the bowel telescopes inside itself.

Pretty soon, the blood supply to the affected area is cut off. The bowel starts to die, releasing toxins into the bloodstream.

Young animals, with relatively poor resistance, succumb all too quickly. It is not pleasant.

Happily, emergency surgery allowed the problem to be sorted. Sometimes the damaged area of bowel has to be removed. But the pup’s owner’s quick action allowed the intussusception to be carefully corrected and normal motility returned to the small intestine.

There was relief all round when the pup recovered and was immediately hungry. But what was the cause? Usually, intussusception occurs in puppies as a consequence of diarrhoea and hypermotility of the gut but there was no history of this.

The answer was revealed when the pup passed a great load of roundworms.

Toxocara canis encysts in the muscle of adult dogs.

If a bitch becomes pregnant, they migrate to the womb and enter pups.

Later, they do the same through the mammary glands, so pups are infected as they eat.

Heavy infestations cause ill thrift and potentially intussusception.

All pregnant bitches should be wormed from the 40th day of pregnancy and their puppies treated every two weeks with appropriate products.